A MERSEYSIDE centre which has trained thousands of apprentices was labelled a failure after watchdogs concluded its teaching was “dull”.

In the firing line is Bootle-based North West Training Council (NWTC) which for almost 50 years has trained apprentices aged 16 upwards for employers across the country in fields ranging from engineering to bricklaying.

It boasts on its website how it has “grown to become one of the largest private sector training organisations, with an unrivalled reputation for the quality of training and related consultancy”.

But today the ECHO can reveal it has been handed the worst possible Grade 4 rating from education inspectorate Ofsted who concluded the centre was “inadequate”.

Following a visit in September, inspectors found many aspects of its management were “weak” and “teaching and training are too often dull”.

Inspectors also criticised the fact that “too many apprentices on engineering and construction programmes leave their programmes early and the proportion of apprentices who complete successfully has declined and is low”.

The report also notes that too many apprentices “progress too slowly and do not complete within the planned period”.

However, Ofsted did highlight a number of NWTC’s strengths including how companies “value highly” its work “in developing provision for their employees”.

It is also praised for its work to increase the number of under-represented groups and how “trainers and assessors work collectively to give good support to learners and have an excellent focus on training learners in health and safety”.

Today chief executive Paul Musa said NWTC was “very disappointed” by the report and with a restructured management has “implemented an action plan to address the main areas of concern outlined in the report, which has the full backing of our board”.

He said NWTC “understand there is a lot of hard work that needs to be completed to improve our grades and was now working with agencies including Skills Funding Agency and the Learning Skills Improvement Services to put things right”.

He stressed NWTC was a charity which “gives a lot of young people who have been low achievers at school the opportunity to learn new skills in engineering and construction, who would not be offered a place in any local colleges”.